After bombing the last land routes into Beirut, and effectively cutting off the Lebanese capital from relief supplies, Israel issued a statement saying the attacks were designed to thwart Syrian attempts to arm Hezbollah. The airstrikes closed main roadways and four key bridges into Beirut from the north. It was the first time the Israel Defense Forces has hit the area north of the capital during the 24-day conflict. "Syria is determined to continue rearming Hezbollah and supply it with weaponry used to attack Israel," said an IDF statement. "The IDF is determined to stop this flow of arms to Hezbollah. The attacks on the bridge last night, which connect Syria and Lebanon, were to this end." Syria has repeatedly denied supplying weapons to Hezbollah. ... http://i.a.cnn.net

The head of the Republican Party accused Democrats of being willing to surrender the tools necessary to combat terrorism as the GOP tries to capitalize on its national security advantage in a tough election year.Faced with President Bush’s low approval ratings and diminishing support for the Iraq war, the Republican strategy is to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue and argue that Democrats hold a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world. Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, stressed that argument in a speech Friday at the organization’s 2-day summer meeting, similar to points made by White House adviser Karl Rove in January. “America faces a critical question,” Mehlman said in his prepared text. “Will we elect leaders who recognize we’re at war and want to use every tool to win it, or politicians who would surrender important tools we need to win?” They use pure Bull Shit to Con people to give up freedoms for this phony war on the Boogiemen...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14187315/

A team of journalists based across the Middle East, some of them under fire, others looking on, share their insights and personal stories in a special edition of the BBC programme From Their Own Correspondent. You can listen to their reports below. Israel has stepped up its ground offensive against Hezbollah and there is little sign of a ceasefire any time very soon. Over the last three weeks, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes to safer mountain villages or even left the country. In Beirut, petrol is rationed and the electricity comes and goes. Israeli jets are over flying the city. Rami Khouri is a leading columnist for one of the region's main English-language newspapers, the Daily Star, based in Beirut. He is a Palestinian by origin and an American citizen. He was out of Lebanon when the latest hostilities started. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5238370.stm

Gamblers raked in nearly half a million dollars over two days on a slot machine that multiplied by 10 the amount of money that players put in, then paid out vouchers without playing, a newspaper reported.Caesars Indiana lost $487,000 before a player notified officials of the problem with the machine, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, reported Friday.Kathryn Ford of Louisville realized something was wrong July 23 when she and her husband sat down at two of the machines, called Extra Money.When she put in a $20 bill the machine registered it as $200. She tried another $20 bill and the same thing happened, she said.Ford said she put eight $20 bills in the machine and received vouchers that could be redeemed for $1,600 in cash -- without even playing....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/04/faulty.slots.payoff.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us

Two dozen people died in a surge of violence in northern Iraq, including 10 at a soccer game hit by a suicide car bombing, police said Friday, while the country's spiraling sectarian and political bloodshed killed at least 17 others elsewhere. Two American soldiers were killed Friday in restive Anbar province west of the capital, the U.S. command said. It said only that they died "due to enemy action." At least 17 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since July 27, all but two of them in Anbar.The suicide driver struck Thursday night during a soccer match between local teams in Hadhra, 180 miles north of Baghdad....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207117,00.html

It would be almost impossible to travel in Cuba and be unaware of the "Five Heroes" or the "Miami Five". Their photos stare out from roadside billboards, stickers calling for their release adorn the dashboards of Havana taxis and their names are constantly evoked by the Cuban media. They are the current symbols of the half century of conflict between Cuba and the United States. The five, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez were dispatched by the Cuban government in the early nineties. Their task was to infiltrate the anti-Castro Cuban exile groups in Miami, who were believed to be engaged in acts of sabotage against Cuba. They took on different jobs, some lowly, and joined the groups, passing themselves off as part of the disgruntled diaspora anxious to remove Castro...http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,1837499,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12